I moan and wail all the time about sitting at home doing nothing.
Now, there's a lot of truth to that: I certainly don't spend 40hrs of week getting paid, nor do I actually really produce anything obviously tangible at the end of any given day, usually.
On the other hand, I've been using Workflowy to write a series of task lists. This list is the list that combines what I do, what needs to be done, and what I want to be doing. Without having a job, it comes to somewhere between 4 and 10 hours a day of stuff in the do daily section. Okay, some of what's on the list is pretty optional, and I certainly don't get all that done every day.
I do need to make a list which differentiates between what I am doing and what I want to be doing. Which is actually a task on that list.
The time estimates in there derive from how long it takes for me to do those tasks, by the way. I do time myself doing things fairly frequently. It's a bit weird, but I've been doing it since I was a child, and it's fairly firmly ingrained.
One of the things that Steve of Nerd Fitness talks about with managing to establish habits is reducing the willpower needed to perform the habit. My internalisation of this concept has a lot to do with my experience doing automated testing and with having my nose rubbed in the barriers to doing anything at all on any given day.
My daily tasks are a lot of overhead to try and automate. To be honest, I'm not sure how to automate most of it, short of having a minder. I outsource the majority of the house cleaning by getting a house cleaner to come in once a week for two hours. Several of the daily tasks are there because doing something small once a day is easier than doing something huge once a week. Partially because I'll remember to do it if it's habitual, and partially because small things require small amounts of energy.
Little things help with this. I leave tabs in firefox open so that I don't have to remember to finalise my grocery orders, check my inbox, write a new blog post, check facebook, or where the clarinet repair place is. This does result in a lot of tabs open at any given time, but on the other hand, if I close all those tabs, it takes me a lot of energy to find and reopen them. The usual result of that is me not writing here, not reading my email, not doing my groceries until the last minute (which screws things up because then I usually don't get a good delivery slot), not interacting with people on facebook, and just losing the long running tasks.
Somehow, I also do the other things, the things that need to be done weekly or monthly or at longer intervals. Well, some of them.
And I have a growing backlog of one-off things to do.
There was a time in my life where I did most of the listed activities, had a full time job, and an active social life. That was around 5 years ago. A lot of what I do, or think about, is trying to get me back into a state where that kind of thing is possible for me again.
A lot of the rest is the mundane maintain the status quo activities. Personally, I don't find them inspiring, which is probably easy to see from the word choices I make when talking or writing about them. Being a housewife has never struck me as an emotionally fulfilling or satisfactory lifestyle for me. Being a systems administrator falls into the same emotional band. Nothing against sysadmins or house spouses, but I'm a progress bar kind of girl.
On the other hand, without routine, I very quickly come apart at the seams. A set daily, weekly, monthly routine frees up a lot of effort that would otherwise be spent on decision making. Or at least transfers to to times where it's manageable to set up, review, and debug.
The problem with routine is that when things change, they don't. Not by themselves. They're brittle under change. For me, it usually takes some weeks at least to settle after a change, or after an event which causes routine to be broken for more than a few days. Enough flexibility to cope with this kind of thing and it's usually not firm enough for in to be useful on a day to day basis. Or I just don't have the skills to design resilient routines that suit me and my life. Of course, when the proverbial hits the fan, what usually happens to me is out-of-control sleep - so I'm either unconscious or a zombie, barely capable of basic self care, much less anything else. Especially not if I'm emotionally exhausted, and I don't have the spare willpower to force myself to do things.
Part of my coping strategy is the quite large number of tasks on my list; doing these tasks helps minimise the collateral impact that occurs when my routine stops happening, and gives me slack time in which to recover. This helps in minimising anxiety during recovery, but does impose a burden of anxiety at other times.
Another aspect is what I like to call 'proactive laziness'. That essentially means doing a tiny extra thing now so I have less to do later. Things like having all the recipes I use regularly printed out and kept in a display folder in the kitchen, so I don't spend half an hour or so wandering around the internet going 'I know I had the link somewhere...', which is a waste of my time and effort. I'll note I've been pretty slack with this lately, which is my first thing to tackle in this challenge cycle.
I really wish I had a program I could fill out with my various tasklists, put in a few parameters, which would serve me up a nice page where I could tick things off, postpone things, etc etc. Remember the Milk is the least worst of this kind of thing that I've found. Its reminders, however, were simultaneously too irritating and too easy to ignore. I might give it another go again. Setup is a bit of a pain in the ass. I'll give it another go again anyway.
With such aids to memory, the difficult thing I find is figuring out what to put in, and what to leave out. Do I really need a reminder to empty, restack, and run the dishwasher? Probably not. Do I need a reminder with an irritating noise to tell me to shower? Probably, yes. Do I need an absolutely-impossible-to-ignore reminder to tell me to take my pills, but only when I'm awake? Definitely.
It's the conditional nature of things that's almost impossible to automate. I don't know, in advance, what kind of day I'm going to have tomorrow; whether it'll be one of those days where I'll take my meds, feel reasonably positive, get out of the house, and do things, or whether it'll be one of those days where I'll drag myself out of bed, to the couch, and desperately try to maintain some sort of grip on consciousness. Or if I'll be awake, but spend the day in one long frustrated scream inside my skull, because this isn't how I wanted my life to be.
At this point, I don't know what causes the ultra low energy days (except when it's obvious, like Monday when I was really ill). I'm working on finding patterns by filling out my daily symptoms, and keeping my activity logs so I have at least some correlation to what's happening in my life, and where my energy limits actually are. Once I have this information, I hope to be able to work exercise into my life again, and smooth out my energy level swings a bit. That, and manage my other energy sinks better.
This has turned into a bit of a ramble, but eh. It's my blog. So there.
Showing posts with label ramble. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ramble. Show all posts
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Monday, 14 May 2012
State change
This morning, I've reflected on the changes that have occurred in the last few weeks.
A few weeks ago, I was depressed. I cried or felt like crying all day every day. I didn't leave the house, because it was too hard. I didn't write, or cook, or take photographs, read new books, or do anything much. I hadn't called my family in weeks. I hadn't had a marginally acceptable night's sleep either, due mostly to insomnia caused by the depression.
What changed?
Nothing.
I have a history of depression and anxiety. Quite a long one, really. Caused at various times by various things. This one was mostly culture shock compounded by hypersomnia, and adjustment to a lifelong illness.
This episode was, in some ways, the worst I've had for nearly a decade, and it was very self reinforcing. It was a feedback cycle - I didn't do things, felt I should, felt worse, so I didn't do things. That's a pretty strong cycle, and the generated feelings did leave me pretty much comatose or zombielike, and in any case were rather effective at preventing me from doing anything much.
But the cycle was clear. That, in the past, has frequently not been the case. To get out of this all I had to do was break the cycle. Amongst other things, this would return me to my normal sleep patterns, which would also tend to enable me to do my normal activities.
I used anger. Not the whiny, useless, energy-draining spinlock frustration I'd been engaging in, but full-blown raging anger at the universe. I said a giant "FUCK THIS!" to myself.
That's really all it took for me to start the process of getting rid of the backlog of tasks and associated guilt. I was too angry to be guilty, and I was energised by that reckless anger.
Of course, the anger wore off. But by then I'd accomplished enough and set up enough frameworks to keep accomplishing things that it didn't matter. I was free from the black cloud for the first time in nearly a year.
The somewhat daily posts are part of this framework. That's where I tell myself that I am doing things; I can do things; I have done things - things which matter to me. Doing a load of laundry or restacking the dishwasher doesn't sound like much, until you realise that those chores are things I've been unable to do regularly for the better part of the last 3 years. Mundane in the grand scheme, yes, but a vital part of helping me feel like I'm an able person.
Another element is addressing my physical fitness, and setting up support frameworks to ease the personal load on my mind. I know that my lack of fitness is limiting my physical energy greatly, so becoming more fit is a really cracking good idea. I find it easier to keep appointments than to just make myself go to the gym. And I find it easier to achieve goals if I set small, measurable goals, and if I have encouragement from peers and friends. Rejoining the Nerd Fitness community is a part of that.
Creativity is also rather important to me. To a limit, the more creative activities I do, the more I can do - similar to physical fitness, I suppose. On the other hand, having deadlines (such as the daily deadlines imposed by the 365 project I attempted) doesn't work for me at all, mostly because of my physical limitations. I therefore set myself this goal: for six weeks, I will write at least one blog post a week that wasn't the daily update. The weekly post could be a ramble, a photography post, a cooking post, a book review, or whatever seemed good at the time. I'd say, judging by my archives, that this goal is doing what it's supposed to be doing. It's giving me sufficient motivation to write, photograph, and cook, without loading me with stress. So instead of a single post a week, I'm doing significantly more than that - and not only that, I'm creating elsewhere.
A broad theme I've been thinking along, which is implied by all the ways I've addressed my situation, is self-acceptance. Learning to work within my limitations. Before, those limits distressed me greatly, which shrunk the limits hugely. The goals I've set have a great deal of flexibility built in, even though they are highly specific and time-driven. Some days I'm not going to be able to do much more than lie on the couch and read. Some days I will be able to take photographs for six hours. I can't predict when in advance which day will be which, but I can take advantage of the good ones, and not stress about the bad ones.
This has the effect of greatly expanding my limits. I have fewer bad days when I'm generally positive about the direction of my life.
I have a very long way to go in certain areas to get back to something resembling what I once was, yet I have significantly more confidence in my ability to get there eventually.
It's looking up.
A few weeks ago, I was depressed. I cried or felt like crying all day every day. I didn't leave the house, because it was too hard. I didn't write, or cook, or take photographs, read new books, or do anything much. I hadn't called my family in weeks. I hadn't had a marginally acceptable night's sleep either, due mostly to insomnia caused by the depression.
What changed?
Nothing.
I have a history of depression and anxiety. Quite a long one, really. Caused at various times by various things. This one was mostly culture shock compounded by hypersomnia, and adjustment to a lifelong illness.
This episode was, in some ways, the worst I've had for nearly a decade, and it was very self reinforcing. It was a feedback cycle - I didn't do things, felt I should, felt worse, so I didn't do things. That's a pretty strong cycle, and the generated feelings did leave me pretty much comatose or zombielike, and in any case were rather effective at preventing me from doing anything much.
But the cycle was clear. That, in the past, has frequently not been the case. To get out of this all I had to do was break the cycle. Amongst other things, this would return me to my normal sleep patterns, which would also tend to enable me to do my normal activities.
I used anger. Not the whiny, useless, energy-draining spinlock frustration I'd been engaging in, but full-blown raging anger at the universe. I said a giant "FUCK THIS!" to myself.
That's really all it took for me to start the process of getting rid of the backlog of tasks and associated guilt. I was too angry to be guilty, and I was energised by that reckless anger.
Of course, the anger wore off. But by then I'd accomplished enough and set up enough frameworks to keep accomplishing things that it didn't matter. I was free from the black cloud for the first time in nearly a year.
The somewhat daily posts are part of this framework. That's where I tell myself that I am doing things; I can do things; I have done things - things which matter to me. Doing a load of laundry or restacking the dishwasher doesn't sound like much, until you realise that those chores are things I've been unable to do regularly for the better part of the last 3 years. Mundane in the grand scheme, yes, but a vital part of helping me feel like I'm an able person.
Another element is addressing my physical fitness, and setting up support frameworks to ease the personal load on my mind. I know that my lack of fitness is limiting my physical energy greatly, so becoming more fit is a really cracking good idea. I find it easier to keep appointments than to just make myself go to the gym. And I find it easier to achieve goals if I set small, measurable goals, and if I have encouragement from peers and friends. Rejoining the Nerd Fitness community is a part of that.
Creativity is also rather important to me. To a limit, the more creative activities I do, the more I can do - similar to physical fitness, I suppose. On the other hand, having deadlines (such as the daily deadlines imposed by the 365 project I attempted) doesn't work for me at all, mostly because of my physical limitations. I therefore set myself this goal: for six weeks, I will write at least one blog post a week that wasn't the daily update. The weekly post could be a ramble, a photography post, a cooking post, a book review, or whatever seemed good at the time. I'd say, judging by my archives, that this goal is doing what it's supposed to be doing. It's giving me sufficient motivation to write, photograph, and cook, without loading me with stress. So instead of a single post a week, I'm doing significantly more than that - and not only that, I'm creating elsewhere.
A broad theme I've been thinking along, which is implied by all the ways I've addressed my situation, is self-acceptance. Learning to work within my limitations. Before, those limits distressed me greatly, which shrunk the limits hugely. The goals I've set have a great deal of flexibility built in, even though they are highly specific and time-driven. Some days I'm not going to be able to do much more than lie on the couch and read. Some days I will be able to take photographs for six hours. I can't predict when in advance which day will be which, but I can take advantage of the good ones, and not stress about the bad ones.
This has the effect of greatly expanding my limits. I have fewer bad days when I'm generally positive about the direction of my life.
I have a very long way to go in certain areas to get back to something resembling what I once was, yet I have significantly more confidence in my ability to get there eventually.
It's looking up.
Saturday, 12 May 2012
Should my blog grow up?
I realise I have fairly small readership as blogs go. This doesn't really bother me, but I don't know. Should I try to increase my audience? Is there really a point to doing so? Obviously, if I went down that path I'd probably have to have more consistent thematic input, and possibly even improve my writing somewhat. I'd have to actually do something resembling graphic design for it, and maybe commit to writing a 'real' post once or twice a week, about things that people find interesting. I'd have to standardise my tagging system somewhat, and possibly my titling system as well.
As for focus - well, currently I write the occasional ramble, book reviews now and again, sometimes I post about food that I've made, show off a few photographs, and I have the semi-daily achievements updates. That last I'd probably have to turn into actual writing instead of dot points, perhaps. The rest ... well, I suppose they're all there, but a less awkward format for the cooking and photographic stuff might be a good idea. Focus seems to be all over the place at present, and aside from starting a new blog with single-focus content, I'm not sure how to unify it - or even if it would be a good idea, or possible.
Sounds like an awful lot of work to me. It is something to consider doing. Not as the basis for a living, I don't think I could take the stress. More as a project to see If I Can.
Maybe. Thoughts? I'm thinking about it.
As for focus - well, currently I write the occasional ramble, book reviews now and again, sometimes I post about food that I've made, show off a few photographs, and I have the semi-daily achievements updates. That last I'd probably have to turn into actual writing instead of dot points, perhaps. The rest ... well, I suppose they're all there, but a less awkward format for the cooking and photographic stuff might be a good idea. Focus seems to be all over the place at present, and aside from starting a new blog with single-focus content, I'm not sure how to unify it - or even if it would be a good idea, or possible.
Sounds like an awful lot of work to me. It is something to consider doing. Not as the basis for a living, I don't think I could take the stress. More as a project to see If I Can.
Maybe. Thoughts? I'm thinking about it.
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Questioning the 'aim high' ideal
I've been engaging in a round of goal setting and whatnot as part of self.fix() lately. Looking at the advice out there, it seems that a common wisdom is to set barely-achieveable goals, on the theory that if you fall short, hey, you improved, awesome. The idea is, the higher your goal (so long as it's within the realms of potentially realistic) the more you'll achieve in a given period of time.
This is not how I work.
I've tried that approach in the past, and what's happened is the first time I slip up I get a little bit depressed (because I know how slim the margin of success is) and it gets worse as time goes on. Not to mention that the further I'm going to undershoot, the more anxious (and depressed) I get about the whole thing as time goes on. Or, I go all out - and break myself in various ways.
This time, I'm trying a new approach: lots of small goals. Part of this is my Achievements posts; they're recording the tiny, mediocre, mundane goals I achieve on a day to day basis. A way of reminding myself that I am accomplishing something.
Likewise my fitness goals. My workout yesterday set a baseline from which to improve. Whilst I do have very long term goals, these bear little to no resemblance to my shorter term goals.
So I have goals like eating twice a day, cooking four dinners a week. Improvements on my current situation, and a bit of a stretch for me right now, but certainly not earthshaking or awe-inducing.
I was asked yesterday by one of the guys at the gym what I'd aim to get out of a 12 week lose and shape up course. When I told him that I would aim to increment my exercises such that I would see an improvement over the course of a month, he ran off the spiel about aiming high. When I told him that I'd tried that, and it was for me a recipe for depression and failure, he was surprised, but became less so when I explained the burnout and the anxiety/guilt mechanisms behind it.
I know that with mediocre goals there is, for most people, a temptation to coast and rest on their laurels. Not so for me; until I get to my endpoints, every time I achieve a goal, there will immediately be another replacing it. When I get to the point where I can easily do 10 knee pushups, for instance, I'll start alternating with full pushups until I can do 10 full pushups easily. As I achieve each goal, I'll plan an extra increment beyond the new goal.
For me, continual adaptability is the key; life throws me curveballs, and in order for those to not completely throw me off, I need to have a maximally flexible approach. At the same time, I desperately need structure and plans to follow, otherwise I'll sit on my backside and do nothing at all.
The constantly incrementing mediocre goalset seems, to me, to be a way to satisfy these seemingly mutually exclusive needs.
What are your thoughts on goals, planning, goal setting, and how they interact with success and failure?
This is not how I work.
I've tried that approach in the past, and what's happened is the first time I slip up I get a little bit depressed (because I know how slim the margin of success is) and it gets worse as time goes on. Not to mention that the further I'm going to undershoot, the more anxious (and depressed) I get about the whole thing as time goes on. Or, I go all out - and break myself in various ways.
This time, I'm trying a new approach: lots of small goals. Part of this is my Achievements posts; they're recording the tiny, mediocre, mundane goals I achieve on a day to day basis. A way of reminding myself that I am accomplishing something.
Likewise my fitness goals. My workout yesterday set a baseline from which to improve. Whilst I do have very long term goals, these bear little to no resemblance to my shorter term goals.
So I have goals like eating twice a day, cooking four dinners a week. Improvements on my current situation, and a bit of a stretch for me right now, but certainly not earthshaking or awe-inducing.
I was asked yesterday by one of the guys at the gym what I'd aim to get out of a 12 week lose and shape up course. When I told him that I would aim to increment my exercises such that I would see an improvement over the course of a month, he ran off the spiel about aiming high. When I told him that I'd tried that, and it was for me a recipe for depression and failure, he was surprised, but became less so when I explained the burnout and the anxiety/guilt mechanisms behind it.
I know that with mediocre goals there is, for most people, a temptation to coast and rest on their laurels. Not so for me; until I get to my endpoints, every time I achieve a goal, there will immediately be another replacing it. When I get to the point where I can easily do 10 knee pushups, for instance, I'll start alternating with full pushups until I can do 10 full pushups easily. As I achieve each goal, I'll plan an extra increment beyond the new goal.
For me, continual adaptability is the key; life throws me curveballs, and in order for those to not completely throw me off, I need to have a maximally flexible approach. At the same time, I desperately need structure and plans to follow, otherwise I'll sit on my backside and do nothing at all.
The constantly incrementing mediocre goalset seems, to me, to be a way to satisfy these seemingly mutually exclusive needs.
What are your thoughts on goals, planning, goal setting, and how they interact with success and failure?
Saturday, 21 April 2012
Stasis and words to live by.
I've written about my diagnosis here and here. Lately, I've come to the realisation that I'm not going to adjust by myself to my current situation. At the moment, it's a pretty good day when I manage to eat and dress before midday - and it's a very rare day indeed where I have a sufficient creative impulse to cook, take a photograph, or even think about writing or knitting or coding.
I've been in stasis for some months now. I rarely leave the house, I rarely want to do anything at all, and whilst I'm beyond the only-able-to-stare blankly stage, it isn't by enough to live a life I'd consider satisfactory. That, combined with the coping with a new environment stuff has given me a mid-range depression. Well, I'm not suicidal or anything like that; there are many days where I want to just curl up and cry, and I'm anxious about every little thing, but, well, I've been worse.
Still, this isn't good. The anxiety, for instance, is giving me on-and-off insomnia, as well as putting me into spinlock. If I break the spinlock enough to quieten the anxiety, I start passing out because of the hypersomnia (and not taking my meds because adding a stimulant to insomnia is a bad idea). If I'm too tired and not doing anything, my anxiety starts ramping up, and then I stop being able to sleep. It's not healthy, and it's ruining my ability to make the most of my limited energy. I'm talking to the doc about it, but it's a bit of a waiting game.
I have two sets of words that I'm trying (and often failing) to live by: the Prayer for Serenity, and the Litany Against Fear.
God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference.
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
The hardest thing is holding on to hope - the hope that I can find a specialist who can improve my quality of life, be it through mitigating my symptoms, or through helping me accept them.
I've been in stasis for some months now. I rarely leave the house, I rarely want to do anything at all, and whilst I'm beyond the only-able-to-stare blankly stage, it isn't by enough to live a life I'd consider satisfactory. That, combined with the coping with a new environment stuff has given me a mid-range depression. Well, I'm not suicidal or anything like that; there are many days where I want to just curl up and cry, and I'm anxious about every little thing, but, well, I've been worse.
Still, this isn't good. The anxiety, for instance, is giving me on-and-off insomnia, as well as putting me into spinlock. If I break the spinlock enough to quieten the anxiety, I start passing out because of the hypersomnia (and not taking my meds because adding a stimulant to insomnia is a bad idea). If I'm too tired and not doing anything, my anxiety starts ramping up, and then I stop being able to sleep. It's not healthy, and it's ruining my ability to make the most of my limited energy. I'm talking to the doc about it, but it's a bit of a waiting game.
I have two sets of words that I'm trying (and often failing) to live by: the Prayer for Serenity, and the Litany Against Fear.
God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference.
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
The hardest thing is holding on to hope - the hope that I can find a specialist who can improve my quality of life, be it through mitigating my symptoms, or through helping me accept them.
Monday, 4 April 2011
Writey writey words ...
Today I did lots of stuff.
- slept 4 hours
- found my black cardie
- forgot my gym gear
- forgot breakfast
- did not cry, or freak out, or lose my calm
- booked a massage
- wore contact lenses for the first time in a couple of years
- related: decided I really REALLY need to get/find a pair of sunnies
- bought a lens (EF 50mm f/1.8 II)
- changed the layout/style of my blog to stop the right hand edges of my photos being cut off
- took 200 photos
- uploaded some of the nonblurry ones to my SmugMug page
- ate a cookie made by my husband
I'm really enjoying learning about my camera and my lens. Tonight was mostly playing with the buttons - white balance, aperture, general settings. I still haven't really played with shutter speed or ISO. I used flash a few times; the lighting at home isn't great. Also? I have really shaky hands, it seems.
Very much looking forward to tomorrow, and getting the focus where I want it for a change. Well, so long as my hands don't shake, anyhow.
In aid of that, I'm going to head off to take out the contacts, curl up around my climate textbook, and sleep.
- slept 4 hours
- found my black cardie
- forgot my gym gear
- forgot breakfast
- did not cry, or freak out, or lose my calm
- booked a massage
- wore contact lenses for the first time in a couple of years
- related: decided I really REALLY need to get/find a pair of sunnies
- bought a lens (EF 50mm f/1.8 II)
- changed the layout/style of my blog to stop the right hand edges of my photos being cut off
- took 200 photos
- uploaded some of the nonblurry ones to my SmugMug page
- ate a cookie made by my husband
I'm really enjoying learning about my camera and my lens. Tonight was mostly playing with the buttons - white balance, aperture, general settings. I still haven't really played with shutter speed or ISO. I used flash a few times; the lighting at home isn't great. Also? I have really shaky hands, it seems.
Very much looking forward to tomorrow, and getting the focus where I want it for a change. Well, so long as my hands don't shake, anyhow.
In aid of that, I'm going to head off to take out the contacts, curl up around my climate textbook, and sleep.
Friday, 11 February 2011
Calling for inspiration
This morning I wanted to write a post, here, but I'm lacking in interesting things to talk about. Everything in my life seems to be midway, on hold, or otherwise not write-worthy material.
I haven't really had any new or interesting wines lately, so I can't write reviews. That said, want me to review a wine? Samples gratefully accepted, and shared if you're in the vicinity.
The Ardvino is waiting on more research into current devices, as well as mailing a few winemakers and viticulturalists I know to get their opinion on the utility and interest of such a device. If you're a winemaker reading this, please read this blog post and give me some feedback.
The get healthy/fit/strong/well project is waiting on time, mostly. Workouts are happening, changes aren't yet. I do need a week or so more before I write about the DOMs that was plaguing me earlier.
I could review 'Player of Games' by Ian Banks, but I'm not sure that I'm good enough to review a book like that meaningfully yet. I haven't finished reading 'Excession' either. Hell, I might do it for practice, but I'd rather have interesting material around it first. Oh, and constructive criticism welcome for my review of Max Allen's 'The Future Makers' that would be wonderful.
My ex-NaNoWriMo dungeon campaign is also currently stalled, for want of time.
Clarinet playing is waiting on me getting into a shop and buying some 1.5 reeds, as all mine have perished. Blasted organic products.
Photography is waiting on better software - I'm running CyanogenMod on my phone, and the inbuilt photo software - I can't zoom, I can't fiddle the light balance, zip. Need to find a better app.
I want to get knitting on my Lyra and my shawl again, but I need to find my bits and pieces, and again, there's a time constraint. Anyone interested in perhaps a Sunday or Saturday afternoon knit-in group? Possibly in aircon, with chill tunes. And wine.
I can't write about uni, for two reasons. Semester hasn't started yet, and when it does start, I seriously doubt there will be anything interesting to write about - 2nd year statistics and market research just don't do anything for me intellectually. Climate and weather might be interesting, but as a low-level subject, I'm not sure there will be anything particularly groundbreaking there. Perhaps I should go back over my course material, and write up some of the more interesting aspects I've found about wine production and similar and post them here. It might be pretty dry reading, though.
So, readers: suggestions for topics? Preferably something I only need to throw a couple of hours at to get traction on and write something interesting.
Meanwhile, I'll be out playing laser tag with my workmates. Pew pew!
I haven't really had any new or interesting wines lately, so I can't write reviews. That said, want me to review a wine? Samples gratefully accepted, and shared if you're in the vicinity.
The Ardvino is waiting on more research into current devices, as well as mailing a few winemakers and viticulturalists I know to get their opinion on the utility and interest of such a device. If you're a winemaker reading this, please read this blog post and give me some feedback.
The get healthy/fit/strong/well project is waiting on time, mostly. Workouts are happening, changes aren't yet. I do need a week or so more before I write about the DOMs that was plaguing me earlier.
I could review 'Player of Games' by Ian Banks, but I'm not sure that I'm good enough to review a book like that meaningfully yet. I haven't finished reading 'Excession' either. Hell, I might do it for practice, but I'd rather have interesting material around it first. Oh, and constructive criticism welcome for my review of Max Allen's 'The Future Makers' that would be wonderful.
My ex-NaNoWriMo dungeon campaign is also currently stalled, for want of time.
Clarinet playing is waiting on me getting into a shop and buying some 1.5 reeds, as all mine have perished. Blasted organic products.
Photography is waiting on better software - I'm running CyanogenMod on my phone, and the inbuilt photo software - I can't zoom, I can't fiddle the light balance, zip. Need to find a better app.
I want to get knitting on my Lyra and my shawl again, but I need to find my bits and pieces, and again, there's a time constraint. Anyone interested in perhaps a Sunday or Saturday afternoon knit-in group? Possibly in aircon, with chill tunes. And wine.
I can't write about uni, for two reasons. Semester hasn't started yet, and when it does start, I seriously doubt there will be anything interesting to write about - 2nd year statistics and market research just don't do anything for me intellectually. Climate and weather might be interesting, but as a low-level subject, I'm not sure there will be anything particularly groundbreaking there. Perhaps I should go back over my course material, and write up some of the more interesting aspects I've found about wine production and similar and post them here. It might be pretty dry reading, though.
So, readers: suggestions for topics? Preferably something I only need to throw a couple of hours at to get traction on and write something interesting.
Meanwhile, I'll be out playing laser tag with my workmates. Pew pew!
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